Montezuma: Warlord of the Aztecs

Epilogue

Epilogue Motecuhzoma may have died on the day the Spaniards fled Tenochtitlan, but his ghost continued to haunt the Mexica. His successors would be crippled by the consequences of his reign. Other men would don the turquoise Toltec diadem as tlatoani. They would be men of heroic stature, in the mold of the best of their empire-building ancestors. But none could escape the train of events that Motecuhzoma had set in motion from the moment he came to power in 1502. Ironically, on the fateful day in the year 1-Reed, when Cortés arrived, the Mexica Empire outwardly seemed to be at its apogee of wealth, extent, and power. Beneath the splendor, however, was a fateful brittleness. The empire had always been vulnerable, as all such vassal-based empires have been, but strong, clear-eyed, and determined leadership had consistently masked that weakness. Motecuhzoma had collapsed the moral center of the empire from within, leaving only the seemingly awesome shell intact. At three levels Motecuhzoma fundamentally weakened the empire . The first two levels were in place prior to the arrival of the Spaniards. His reorganization of the state had made for great imperial theatrics but had induced a level of rigidity and lack of initiative that 95 would ultimately deprive the Mexica of the flexibility to respond effectively to the Spanish invasion. In effect, by centralizing power in his own person and assuming the attributes of a god, he cut himself off from good counsel. This was a direct repudiation of the system the Eagle Clan had so successfully employed in the past. He also made it suicidal for subordinates to take any initiative without direct orders from the imperial center. Second, his self-identification with Huitzilopochtli was perhaps a logical progression in Mexica imperial history. By assuming aspects of the godhead and by championing Huitzilopochtli against the rest of the pantheon, he created a level of religious dissension in Anáhuac that weakened loyalty to the center among vassal elites. His support of the power of the priesthood against other interests also weakened the ability of the Mexica to respond to a new and extraordinary threat. Finally, his unreasoning enmity to the Enemies of the House created ready-made allies for the Spaniards. It was the Enemies of the House, particularly Tlaxcallan, which gave Cortés the secure base and the large number of first-class fighting men necessary to subdue the Mexica. All of these wounds, however, could not have been so fully exploited by Cortés had Motecuhzoma not simply lost his nerve in the face of the unexpected. It was Motecuhzoma’s moral collapse that undid the empire. His rigid personality demanded utter control of his environment. When he could no longer exert that control , he fell to pieces. Admittedly, the arrival of the Spaniards was a profound event, but it was made fatal by Motecuhzoma’s fundamental personality flaw. It is difficult to believe that practical and ruthless men like Motecuhzoma I and Ahuítzotl would have responded so supinely. Surely ancient Tlacaélel, the creator of the imperial cult of Huitzilopochtli, would not have failed to see exactly what the Spaniards were. All of these men would have reacted aggressively to destroy the Europeans. Even Motecuhzoma’s closest advisers in the Eagle Council, his own brother Cuitláhuac and his nephew Cuauhtémoc, recognized the danger immediately and recommended appropriate action. Cacamatzin, who initially agreed with Motecuhzoma about admitting the Spaniards into 96 epilogue Tenochtitlan, quickly recognized the error and tried to organize resistance. Instead, Motecuhzoma turned over the empire as a running concern to the Spaniards. The Mexica Empire cracked at its foundation at the moment when Motecuhzoma and Cortés met on the causeway at Xoloc. At one stroke he severed the bonds of fear upon which the empire had been built—he admitted the existence of a greater earthly power and surrendered sovereignty to it. When Cortés and his toughs came to seize him in his own palace, even his physical courage failed him. He even offered his own children in his place. Next he failed to defend Huitzilopochtli and thereby made nonsense of the Mexica imperial idea that Tlacaélel had so carefully constructed for over sixty years. When Cortés leapt into the air to smash the iron bar across the face of Hummingbird’s idol, he challenged the god’s invincibility...